SAHIWAL: Officials from the Sahiwal Municipal Corporation, Rescue 1122, and the Auqaf department evacuated six families from a three-storey dilapidated building when it developed cracks during an ongoing anti-encroachment drive in Machli Bazaar here on Sunday.

Eyewitnesses says that during the drive, heavy machinery was being used to demolish illegal permanent and temporary structures in the bazaar when cracks appeared in the boundary wall of anineand-a-half-marla building and some of the bricks started falling.

On seeing the cracks, the officials carrying out the demolition operation immediately evacuated the families living in the old building and sealed it.

Nasir Ahmed, a spokesperson for the Auqaf department, said the building belonged to the department and had been declared dangerous.

He mentioned that notices had been served on the residents askingthem to vacate the building but they did not comply.

Out of the six houses in the bazaar, Raheela Begum`s house was already sealed by the Auqaf department.

The families of residents, including Shaikh Ijaz, Shaikh Sadiq, Mumtaz Bibi, Shabbir Ahmed, and Raheela Kousar (a widow) moved to other places after the building was sealed.

After further examination, the Municipal Corporation has ordered immediate demolition of the building.

Official sources say the entire building belonged to the Auqaf department and had been declared dangerous, but the residents did not vacated it despite several warnings from the MC staff.

Meanwhile, the sources says thaton deputy commissioner`s orders, illegal occupants residing in a 300-year-old Sikh Gurdwara in Hata Badian have also been ejected from the old building by city police during the drive.

HASHISH SEIZED: Harrapa Police claimed tohave havearrested a gang of three alleged drug-traffickers, recovering 36kg hashish, five pistols, 285 bullet rounds, and a rifle from them near 117/12-L village on GT Road, Kasowal.

As per the police, the arrested suspects belong to Jhand tehsil of Attock district.

Harrapa SHO Zeeshan Bashir said the seized drug was being smuggled to Multan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Giving details, he said a police team at Harrapa Toll Plaza tried to stop a suspicious car, but the driver sped away.

On being informed of the fleeing suspects, another police team led by Sub-Inspectors Bashir Doger and Mushtaq Gill, present at Kasowal picket, intercepted the suspects and during search found the drug concealed in differentcavities ofthe car.

The police arrested the suspects, identified as Zahid, Tariq and Abdul Qadoos, and registered a case against them under different sections of the Anti-Narcotics Act on the complaint of Sub Inspector Mushtaq Gill.